Winter Photography Tips

What's interesting about planning this trip is just how helpful friends are (and not to mention how excited they are with our 'little' adventure)... Friends has been contributing traveling tips, whether it be the cheapest way to get around Europe (thanks to Jamie for the Eurail passes), places to eat or shop... heck, even my boss joined in the 'fun' by looking for cheap (but awesome, nonetheless) accommodations in Prague.

With so many things to cover before we go to Europe, having people point us in the right direction (so to speak) really saves us a lot of time.

This evening I had a pretty interesting conversation with my photog friend about taking photos during winter. Being in a tropical country, I never would had thought how much the weather would affect my camera.

Batteries Drain Faster in Cold Weather

My camera uses 4 units of AA batteries. To make sure that my camera doesn't run out of power when I'm out taking pics, I will be carrying another set of AA batteries with me as back up. And yes, they are rechargeable :) So the tip here is to bring extra sets of rechargeable batteries :)

Condensation is the Camera's Worst Enemy

Unfortunately, this was something that happened to my photog friend. He had packed his equipment in the hotel room (which was nice and warm). He was doing an outdoor photoshoot. And the moment he took his camera out from the bag, he could see that his camera lenses fogging up. His biggest concern was the possibility of condensation inside the camera.

So to avoid this problem, he gave me this tip: Place the camera first inside a plastic bag containing air the same temperature as the camera. This is so that when you take the camera out into an extremely cold environment, the condensation forms on the plastic bag instead of on the camera. By doing so, you are also giving the camera some time to get use to the cold climate.

Of course there is this other issue when taking photos in winter, such as frostbite. So remember to keep warm at all times and if you need to remove your gloves when taking photos, remember to not expose your skin for long periods of time... unless of course if you don't care much for your fingers ;)

Things you should never forget to take along Part 3 (optional)

I should change the title of this post but I thought it should still fall under the same topic. This time it's not about what you MUST bring along, but some things you may want to consider doing or taking along with you.

1) Travel Insurance
While most of us are insured medically and also for life, some policies may or may not cover for damages while abroad and especially for things that are directly related to your travel like lost or damaged luggage, flight delays and cancellations, missed connections and the unlikely fortune of sitting in on a hijack ^_^;;

The easiest way to get travel insurance is usually through your travel agent or through the website you purchased your flight ticket. Not all airlines offer this and you usually want to stick to a policy that is from your home country.

As my ticket was purchased abroad this time, I have opted for Travel Safe from HSBC. This insurance is especially easy to obtain as you can apply for it online. All you have to do is to log in to your HSBC online banking website and send in a request for a quote. If you are happy, you pay! And voila, you are covered for the whole duration of your stay overseas. I am very sure other banks in Malaysia also offer similar insurances online, so make sure to check.

As a last resort, you could also get your travel insurance at the airport, no worries!

2) Laundry matters
Laundry is probably the last thing on your mind when preparing for a trip abroad for FUN! Who cares about washing right? Yes, that may be true, until you start to stink ;-P

There are 2 ways to deal with this,
i. Bring enough clothes and underwear to last your whole trip so you don't have to worry about laundry, or
ii. Not bring too much clothes as to not burden yourself with a heavy suitcase and be prepared for laundry!

If you are going to go economy, make sure to bring along some hand wash detergent, like above. I prefer to not carry too much liquids in my suitcase so I would go for something like "Handy Detergent" which is a concentrated cream detergent. It won't spill, and that is important.

If you are going to opt for using coin laundries, then I suggest you bring along a net for your delicates, it won't take up space in your suitcase and can in fact act as a laundry bag!

3) Bathroom & Indoor slippers
If you cherish your feet and is icky about going bare feet in a tub or shower that has been used by many others before you, this is not optional, bring your own bathroom slippers!!
When indoors if you like to let your feet breathe after a long day of walking, slippers will help. As you know, in the west most are accustomed to wearing shoes indoors and carpeted rooms are places where you especially do not want to go shoeless.

Until I think of more, it is adios for now!

Things you should never forget to take along Part 2

Plenty of moisturizer and anti-dehydration creams or lotion! This is especially important for those of us who come from the tropics and not used to wintery climates. This is probably that only time you wish the oil glands in your skin will NOT stop secreting. I know, I know, it sounds gross and disgusting but that is the truth.

When back home you may be keeping your T-zone oil-free, you probably wouldn't want that to be the case when traveling away from the hot sticky climate we know. The air in Europe is very much drier and less humid than what we are used to, so be prepared with lots of lubricants for the face, hands and legs! I often find myself experiencing extreme dryness in the face for the first week before the body adapts to your new surrounding.

As we are embarking on this journey in winter, (due to work schedule conflicts) take heed my friends!
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Things you should never forget to take along Part 1

First of all HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!! To many it's probably just another day but it's just another day of the beginning of something new. 2010 is going to be a blast, I promise!

Since Lydia started her little section on essentials for traveling, I decided to also share some tips, simply based on experience. Hopefully this will help my partners in crime and others alike!

When traveling, there are the basics you would need, like your passport, sufficient funds in the correct currency (or your plastic) and your own toothbrush. But then there are little things that people tend to forget or not consider. I will try to put this into installments as things pop to mind, but here is my number one favorite, something I would not be able to live without.

PLUG ADAPTERS

The first thing you would probably notice upon entering a hotel and wanting to charge your camera or phone, is that the power points are..., yes, very different. In Europe, they use a 2-round pin socket so you would need to get an adapter like in the picture above. Your best bet is to purchase one of those that comes with all the different pins for use all over the world and bring whatever you need depending on where you are traveling to. Most hotels (not hostels) provide plug adapters but it is always best to carry one if not more of your own. (As you can see in the picture above, I actually travel with 3!) Without the adapter, you would be battery dead and I can guarantee that will not be fun.

Now wait, that is not all .Europe runs on 220V which is good for us traveling from Malaysia as our power supply is at 240V to begin with, so there is no need to worry about step-down transformers and the lot. If you are however coming from Japan or America (100-110V) then you should make sure that your chargers and gadgets are universally adapt, or you would need a step-down transformer which are actually quite a pain to travel with. Most gadgets today are made to take power input from 100-240 so it is usually your power chord or charger that should match the power input of your destination, so just check on that and buy the appropriate chargers before you leave. They usually are pretty cheap.

And with this you are set to get your phone, camera, computer, hair dryer, ipod working throughout your stay away from home!

Trip Essentials

Apart from having great friends to travel with, one of the must have items has got to be a camera.

Now I'm no professional photog. Hand me a camera and 8/10 of the pictures I take will have what my photog friend calls as the "Blurred Motion" effect. In order words, I'm really good at taking shaky pictures! Lol!

Seeing what an idiot amateur I am with taking photos, I need a camera that is easy-to-use. Definitely none of those SLR cameras for me. A digital SLR camera to me is like me (who don't cook btw) trying to whip out a gourmet meal for a group of food critics.

Although most rational people in my place would opt for a simple digital camera (those square-ish kind), that simply won't do for me. A simple digital camera won't be able to justify the beautiful landscape in Europe. (And don't think I don't hear you asking "Are you sure it's NOT because of your lack of photo-taking skills that could be the problem here?")

A simple digital camera should only be used when out camwhoring with your girfriends on a drunken night.

I have found the perfect camera for an amateur photog like myself. With wide-angle super zoom lens, it can take beautiful landscape pics as well as macro shots, it's portable and has user-friendly format. AND the best part is, it can also take High Definition videos. Woootss!

Say hello to the Canon PowerShot SX20 IS! :)

If you're not looking at spending extra $$$ for a good camera, I may have a solution for those of you who are using the iPhone. Afterall, like what world-renowned photog, Chase Jarvis, said, "the best camera is the one that's with you". I will touch base on using the iPhone's built-in camera in  my future post.

Till then, ciao!